RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Exisulind may make tumor cells more sensitive to chemotherapy. Combining chemotherapy with exisulind may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combining chemotherapy with exisulind in treating patients who have extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.

Determine the percentage of patients with extensive stage small cell lung cancer who live more than 12 months after treatment with carboplatin, etoposide, and exisulind.

Determine the response rate of patients treated with this regimen.

Determine the toxicity of this regimen in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Patients receive carboplatin IV over 30 minutes on day 1 and etoposide IV over 30-60 minutes on days 1-3. Patients also receive oral exisulind twice daily on days 1-21. Treatment repeats every 21 days for up to 6 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients are followed every 2 months for 1 year and then every 4 months for 2 years.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 41 patients will be accrued for this study within 8 months.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years and older

Genders Eligible for Study:

Both

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

No

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

Histologically or cytologically confirmed small cell lung cancer

At least 1 unidimensionally measurable lesion

At least 20 mm by conventional techniques OR

At least 10 mm by spiral CT scan

Lesions considered nonmeasurable include:

Bone lesions

Leptomeningeal disease

Ascites

Pleural/pericardial effusion

Abdominal masses that are not confirmed and followed by imaging techniques

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For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00041054